The cave this attraction is named after no longer exists. It was a real cave behind Bridal Veil Falls at Niagara, about 130 feet high, 100 feet wide and 30 feet deep, found in 1834 and originally called Aeolus's Cave after the Greek god of the winds.
Guided tours began properly in 1841, reached through Goat Island and down a staircase towards the falls, and they took you behind the water. A rockfall closed the tour in 1920. It reopened in 1924, but with a change that has defined the experience ever since: instead of going behind the Bridal Veil, visitors were brought to the front of it, on decks and walkways. Then in 1954 a massive rockfall destroyed the cave outright, and a dangerous overhang left afterwards was dynamited. There is nothing left to go into.
What replaced it is arguably better. A lift takes you from between the American and Canadian Falls down to the level of the Niagara River at the base of the American Falls, and a series of redwood decks and platforms walks you right up under the Bridal Veil, with the river crashing down onto the decking and running away beneath your feet. Winds under the falls can reach 68 mph, which is tropical storm strength, and you get comprehensively soaked.
The decking is not a permanent structure and cannot be. It is taken out every autumn before ice builds up at the falls and rebuilt every spring by park staff, and it is not bolted to the rock. The whole attraction is dismantled and reassembled annually, which is a piece of engineering few visitors realise they are standing on.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
